News

Family Life International has opened the doors to a new John Paul II Catholic Centre for Life on Filleul Street, Dunedin. This is the third Centre for Life to be opened in New Zealand, following those already running in Auckland and Wellington.

Dame Colleen Bayer, National Director of Family Life International New Zealand, believes “the people of Dunedin have long seen a need for a crisis pregnancy centre in the Otago region.” According to Statistics NZ, 610 abortions were performed at Dunedin Hospital in 2012.

The Centre for Life offers pregnancy testing and counselling, free of charge. There is also a library of books and AV resources on life issues, marriage, Catholic parenting, Natural Fertility Regulation (NFR), chastity and apologetics (the discipline of defending one’s faith). Frank Fischer, co-ordinator of Centre for Life, told Critic “the women do not have to be Catholic. They can just come in here and we’ll listen.”

Stevie Jepson of Dunedin Reproductive Justice told Critic that “I think extra services for pregnant people who want advice and someone to talk to is good, but the Centre for Life does not provide a fair and fully informed service for those people.”

Jepson points out that the Family Life International website reads “every abortion deliberately ends the life of a human baby, which means that it is a gravely immoral act of homicide against a developing baby in the womb.” Pregnantandworried.org, a site linked to Family Life International, also pushes the link between abortion and breast cancer, which, Jepson said, “has been proven to be false.”

Jepson explained that “people who need advice about a pregnancy are already in a vulnerable situation [and] to not provide a neutral and non-judgemental space for those people is taking advantage of them.”

Fischer claims, however, that the Centre is looking out for vulnerable women. “Abortion is not very nice for women. There are a growing number of studies which show all pregnancy loss is traumatic for a woman, but the trauma appears to last longer when the loss was a result of abortion.”

The Centre also has an educational program on “pro-life, family, marriage and faith related issues.” They claim their services are “non-judgemental and totally confidential.”

Dunedin Reproductive Justice has a pro-choice picnic planned for Saturday 28 September on the Union lawn in celebration of the Global Day of Action for Access to Safe and Legal Abortion.